The first part of this class will explore curation tools. Based on the discussion we have had you are familiar with what curation is and why it is important. For the next several assignments you will be familiarizing yourself with tools that will make the process easier (?) because as a librarian everything has to be done at warp speed as there are so many things on your plate. So – fast and easy is the mode of operation you will work at in your daily job.
In order to not burden you too much with the different tools, you will create one project that you will use as a template in working with the different applications. The first step is to come up with a great project. All elements of your project may not play nicely with the different applications but that is what we are here to explore.
OVERVIEW
In your exploration you may some of the examples where librarians have curated information for multiple grades (First Grade, Second Grade, etc.) or multiple class disciplines (Language Arts, Social Studies, etc.) all in one URL. You may do that when you are in your own library but for this class I want you to select one topic and go in-depth with your curation selections. Look at the curated topics in this link: http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=896388#anchor. Click on the link on the left “Review Nominated Binders Here” and you can peruse the top nominated LiveBinders for 2013 (2012 and 2011 as well if you want.) and click on the individual projects. You will see a screenshot of the project with a link to go to the Web site as well. Look these over to give you some ideas.
YOUR PROJECT
Besides picking a significant topic to curate, I want you to explore how each of these applications handles the various kinds of media that you may collect. The first application you will be working with is LiveBinders. Not all applications play well with the variety of media. This is what you want to find out this will be reflected in your comments on Blackboard. For your project, your are to include the minimum:
RSS feeds (blogs, news, etc.) (at least five)
Web sites (at least ten)
Videos (at least five) (rather than a link to the video, be sure to embed the video if at all possible so that it plays in the LiveBinder. Here's how https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPcHu2gdXDg)
Podcast (at least two)
list of books, database articles, and anything else held IN THE LIBRARY (as Joyce V. said in her “Curation” article: “…curation offers a face-to-face shelving approach for books, databases, reference eBooks and their widgets, as well as the potential to focus, scale, and maximize our use and investment in these resources.”) -- Be sure to list the Dewey number for your library books so the patron can go directly from your LiveBinder to the shelf.
ORGANIZATION
Presentation is very important for curation. The simplest approach would be to make a separate tab for each of the types of information listed above, but it doesn’t have to be as long as we understand what the information type is. With videos, it is pretty clear that the information will be streaming video, but with other types of information it may not be so clear. You don’t want students clicking randomly and being surprised by a podcast when they thought they were getting a Web site, etc.
Remember one of the fundamental components of curation is the fact that you are giving the students CONTEXT for the information that you have so carefully selected. Wherever possible, give a brief reason for the inclusion of the information. You are not just aggregating information but you are an editor who has thoughtfully collected information specifically for a project because of your expertise.
THINGS WE AREN’T EXPLORING
I have not selected a number of popular curation tools for exploration – mainly because of time (we do need to learn about MARC records after all) but because I am not a fan of the tools that don’t allow easy contextual discussion or specific organization of the information.
Popular tools such as Only2Clicks, Pinterest, Paper.li, scoop.it, Pearltrees, etc. allow you to collect Web sites easily but giving context to the information is more difficult and they seem more aggregative than curative to me (I know others would disagree and I like Scoop.it for what it does in a narrow sense) but if you have haven’t explored the “Curation Tools” from the //WebTools4U2Use//site, I encourage you to do so – it is spectacular.
GRADING
Grading rubric will be found in the COURSE DOCUMENTS section of Blackboard. LIVEBINDERS
You will need to create your own account at http://livebinders.com/. At any time in this process be sure to tap your fellow students for answers on the FAQ Board in Blackboard.
Some additional information (some to get you started -- lots more help in YouTube)
Student Tips from a Previous Class “I'm trying to add an Youtube video to my Livebinders, but is shows: “Please click on the thumbnail or link above to view the file. The owner of this website has a policy that this site can only be viewed in its own window.” When you click on the link it just takes you to Youtube's homepage. Embedding a link does not work.”
Student 1: “What worked for me was using the edit menu at the bottom of the page (where you can add tabs/subtabs). Select the one that says add media and then it should have some other options like flickr pictures, youtube videos, etc... Make sure you select Youtube video and then put the video url in the box below and hit find. livebinders should then pull up a thumbnail of the video and you can select it. Then it should show up on your actual page”
Student 2: [Above is a] “great tip which worked for me most of the time also. However, sometimes that pesky link just would not embed video directly into LiveBinders.
In this case I had to use the YouTube link which looked like the one you displayed, but that link could not incude the wording embed in the URL. It would appear that sometimes YouTube provides two different links. One is in the URL bar and the other is in the Share tab.”
The first part of this class will explore curation tools. Based on the discussion we have had you are familiar with what curation is and why it is important. For the next several assignments you will be familiarizing yourself with tools that will make the process easier (?) because as a librarian everything has to be done at warp speed as there are so many things on your plate. So – fast and easy is the mode of operation you will work at in your daily job.
In order to not burden you too much with the different tools, you will create one project that you will use as a template in working with the different applications. The first step is to come up with a great project. All elements of your project may not play nicely with the different applications but that is what we are here to explore.
OVERVIEW
In your exploration you may some of the examples where librarians have curated information for multiple grades (First Grade, Second Grade, etc.) or multiple class disciplines (Language Arts, Social Studies, etc.) all in one URL. You may do that when you are in your own library but for this class I want you to select one topic and go in-depth with your curation selections. Look at the curated topics in this link: http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=896388#anchor. Click on the link on the left “Review Nominated Binders Here” and you can peruse the top nominated LiveBinders for 2013 (2012 and 2011 as well if you want.) and click on the individual projects. You will see a screenshot of the project with a link to go to the Web site as well. Look these over to give you some ideas.
YOUR PROJECT
Besides picking a significant topic to curate, I want you to explore how each of these applications handles the various kinds of media that you may collect. The first application you will be working with is LiveBinders. Not all applications play well with the variety of media. This is what you want to find out this will be reflected in your comments on Blackboard.
For your project, your are to include the minimum:
ORGANIZATION
Presentation is very important for curation. The simplest approach would be to make a separate tab for each of the types of information listed above, but it doesn’t have to be as long as we understand what the information type is. With videos, it is pretty clear that the information will be streaming video, but with other types of information it may not be so clear. You don’t want students clicking randomly and being surprised by a podcast when they thought they were getting a Web site, etc.
Remember one of the fundamental components of curation is the fact that you are giving the students CONTEXT for the information that you have so carefully selected. Wherever possible, give a brief reason for the inclusion of the information. You are not just aggregating information but you are an editor who has thoughtfully collected information specifically for a project because of your expertise.
THINGS WE AREN’T EXPLORING
I have not selected a number of popular curation tools for exploration – mainly because of time (we do need to learn about MARC records after all) but because I am not a fan of the tools that don’t allow easy contextual discussion or specific organization of the information.
Popular tools such as Only2Clicks, Pinterest, Paper.li, scoop.it, Pearltrees, etc. allow you to collect Web sites easily but giving context to the information is more difficult and they seem more aggregative than curative to me (I know others would disagree and I like Scoop.it for what it does in a narrow sense) but if you have haven’t explored the “Curation Tools” from the //WebTools4U2Use//site, I encourage you to do so – it is spectacular.
GRADING
Grading rubric will be found in the COURSE DOCUMENTS section of Blackboard.
LIVEBINDERS
You will need to create your own account at http://livebinders.com/. At any time in this process be sure to tap your fellow students for answers on the FAQ Board in Blackboard.
Some additional information (some to get you started -- lots more help in YouTube)
Student Tips from a Previous Class
“I'm trying to add an Youtube video to my Livebinders, but is shows: “Please click on the thumbnail or link above to view the file. The owner of this website has a policy that this site can only be viewed in its own window.” When you click on the link it just takes you to Youtube's homepage. Embedding a link does not work.”
Student 1: “What worked for me was using the edit menu at the bottom of the page (where you can add tabs/subtabs). Select the one that says add media and then it should have some other options like flickr pictures, youtube videos, etc... Make sure you select Youtube video and then put the video url in the box below and hit find. livebinders should then pull up a thumbnail of the video and you can select it. Then it should show up on your actual page”
Student 2: [Above is a] “great tip which worked for me most of the time also. However, sometimes that pesky link just would not embed video directly into LiveBinders.
In this case I had to use the YouTube link which looked like the one you displayed, but that link could not incude the wording embed in the URL. It would appear that sometimes YouTube provides two different links. One is in the URL bar and the other is in the Share tab.”